Scouring the old Manhattan telephone directories from the early years of the century, now relegated to decaying spools of microfilm in a dark corner of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, one looks in vain for the curious appellation "Gell-Mann." (from the first line)

"Strange Beauty" is the first biography of Novel Prize-winner Murray Gell-Mann--arguably the most brilliant physicist of his generation--whose discovery of quarks and contributions to the field of complexity have radically changed our understanding of the world. of photos.

From the Publisher:A definitive portrait of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann describes his remarkable contributions to the world of twentieth-century science, including his discovery of quarks and contributions to the field of complexity.A definitive portrait of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann describes his remarkable contributions to the world of twentieth-century science, including his discovery of quarks and contributions to the field of complexity. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

Annotation:In this accessible biography, a science writer analyzes the life and work of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, from the scientist's intellectually gifted childhood to his groundbreaking research of elementary particles and their building blocks, which he dubbed "quarks." A New York Times Notable Book for 1999.

Praise

New York Times Book Review"[A] multidimensional portrait of a brilliant but tormented man who dominated elementary particle physics for 20 years....[Gell-Mann] appears as a flawed, almost Shakespearean hero in an era when prominent physicists like Einstein, Richard Feynman and Stephen Hawking are typically portrayed as comic-book superheroes....Gell-Mann could not have written such a perceptive book about himself as Johnson has." - Louis A. Bloomfield 10/17/1999

Scientific American"STRANGE BEAUTY brings together an irresistible subject--the difficult polymath Murray Gell-Mann--and a talented writer who spins an enthralling tale out of the kind of esoteric physics that generally flies right over our heads. Johnson is one of the best science journalists writing today....This is his most ambitious project yet--communicating the fascination of a kind of science that only an elite of superbright people fully understands. He succeeds brilliantly." - Chet Raymo

New York Times"Mr. Johnson, a contributing science writer for The New York Times, does a masterly job of making the arcana of part particle physics available and shepherding the reader through increasing layers of complexity. Also central to this narrative, and what keeps the reader forging through the densest thickets, is the drama of Mr. Gell-Mann's blazing brain. This book is a mind trip...." 10/17/1999

Observer (London)"Johnson's best trick...is re-creating the sheer confusion of particle physics from the late 40s to the early 60s. He has to do this so you appreciate the magnitude of the theorist's achievement. But he has to do it without utterly confusing the reader. Competing proposals for fitting together particles, forces and fields or maybe doing without fields altogether come thick and fast, but the final quark model seems almost as satisfying as it must have done to Gell-Mann." 01/29/2000